"Okay," I said loudly in the middle of our big fat test training meeting. I was certainly playing the part of the sulking teenager Principle Sadie always had me pinned as last year. I think sarcasm and anger is never attractive when coupled with youth. Too often, it is just a guise for folly. I do better to be well tempered and keep my mouth shut at the age and stage I am in, but sometimes I surprise myself with a gust of passion that exits my mouth before I think it through.
I was worked up over my ELL student. The "SEI Coach" was addressing the staff about testing procedures for ELLs (don't even get me started on that), but she wasn't giving any straight answers. The packet I had said that 1st and 2nd year language learners were entitled to a direct translation of testing procedures. I wanted my Mandarin speaking student to have this because I know it would help her.
The "SEI Coach" responded to my questions by saying, "Well, you haven't been translating things into Mandarin all year, so she can't have that." It was said half jokingly, but it was really brushing off my request, and the wording in my packet strongly suggested my student would be entitled to this. You better believe that is a case I will make. I just wish I had made it more professionally.
After the meeting, I talked to her. I was pretty mad because I don't think she was telling me the truth, and I made that apparent. That is not the worst of it though. Later I was telling the librarian how irritated I was about her attitude and how I didn't think she was telling me the truth. What I didn't know was that SHE WAS IN THE LIBRARY TOO. So much for my helping my gradelevel team get a softer reputation.
Besides all of that, I really am forgetting that we all in a school are on the same team. We're all advocating for kids from different angles. I have got to work with people. I am right to pursue this and advocate for this kid, but I am definitely wrong to go about it the way I did today.
There is not a lot of support out there for our kids and our schools right now. The last thing we need is to turn against the people in the boat with us. I guess I have an uncomfortable apology to make.
1 comment:
i have SO done this before. i think that when you are as passionate about your kids as you are, it hurts you when someone else brushes them off. we call in 'mother hen' instinct and it just takes over. those are our babies, and how DARE someone even hint that they don't care as much as we do. i TOTALLY know how you feel. hope your apology wasn't/isn't too painful.
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